Towel rack



July 19,1949. A. LUNDE 2,476,555

TOWEL RACK Filed March l, 1947 IN VEN TOR.

Lung e ATTORNEY Patented July 19, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE.

TOWEL RACK Alfred Lunde, Seattle, Wash.

Application March 1, 1947, Serial No. 731,830

8 Claims.

This invention relates to a structure for hanging towels, curtains, drapes, and'the like, and for its general object aims to provide an assembly of parts comprising a length of flexible line and complementing brackets there-for so arranged and adapted as to permit the two ends of the line to be releasably secured one to one and the other to the other of the two brackets and the line drawn into such a taut condition therebetween as to giv to the stretched line much the appearance and functioning characteristic of a rigid pole.

With this and other more particular objects and advantages in View and which will appear and be understood in the course of the following description and claims, the invention consists in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure-1 is an elevational view representing a structure according to the now-preferred embodiment of the present invention, and. shown attached to the wall of a bathroom for'use as a towel rack. I

Fig. 2 is a view taken to an enlarged scale, partly in top plan and partly in horizontal section, to detail one of the brackets and illustrating the associated towel-supporting line fragmentarily.

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view of the bracket.

Fig. 4 is a transverse vertical sectional view on line 44 of Fig. 2. 7

Fig. 5 is a top plan view illustrating a bracket somewhat modified from the bracket shown in the preceding views to expressly adapt the same for use in hanging a curtain or drape and with the line being here also shown fragmentarily; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentarytransverse vertical sectional view on line 6Bof Fig. 5;

Referring to said drawing and first describing the bracket as it is shown in Figs. 1 through 4, inclusive, there is provided a hollow head It sustained by a web II. from a mounting flange l2. The chamber l3 described within the head is open to the rear and is of a substantially cylindrical shape placing its axis parallel to the plane of the flange, and circumscribing said rear-end opening is a shallow counter-bore describing a seat to accommodate the reception of a center-bored disc 24. The front wall of the chamber is desirably closed other than for an opening [5 placed on the longitudinal center-line of the bracket in outwardly oifset relation to the axial line of the chamber.

Received within the chamber is a free-fitting piston l6, center-bored and threaded, and this piston is formed in its periphery with a re-entrant radial notch H. An eye-bolt is received through the centerbore of the disc M to act upon the pis ton much in the nature of a turn-buckle, its threaded shank 18 working in the threads of the piston and its eye 20 being exposed and bearing upon the disc.

Thebracket which I illustrate in Figs. 4, 5 and 6 differs from the above-described bracket only in that the chamber described within the hollow head, here denoted 2|, is open at both ends and has a longitudinal slot 22 out in the side-wall to extend rearwardly from the front opening. The web 23 of this bracket is also, by preference, placed at the rear of the bracket and extends transverse to the head in order that an open throat will be described at the front end of the bracket between the head and the mounting flange. The purpose of this throat will be hereinafter set forth.

The flexible line of the present invention has a diameter somewhat smaller than that of the opening I5 andis desirably comprised of a length of multiple-strand wire 24 covered with a jacket 25 of rubber. In applying this line to the firstdescribed brackets, these brackets being as yet unsecured to the wall, the procedure is to first cut the line to the length desired, and it is recommended that this length be two inches longer than the distance to which the brackets will be separated when the latter are attached, as by screws 26, to the wall. The user then inserts the ends of the line through the openings [5 of the respective brackets and. draws these ends-through the brackets to have a portion of the line exposed. Approximately one inch of the rubber jacket is then peeled back and removed from these exposed ends and the bared wire tied into a knot 21', leaving a straight neck 28 of bared wire between the rubber jacket and the knot. These bared necks are now each lodged in the peripheral notch I! of the piston I6 of a respective eye-bolt assembly, and the pistons are slipped into the cylindrical chambers and carried to the forward ends of the latter by pulling back upon the line, the disc l4 being coincidentally lodged in the mating counterbore. The brackets are now fixed to the wall, being separated a distance only so much as is necessary to take the free slack out of the line, and the eye-bolts are turned in a clock-wise direction to draw each of the two pistons rearwardly within the chambers. Assuming that each chamher is one inch in length, this gives an over-all take-up upon the line of two inches, and I find that this is more than suflicient to tighten the line and hold the same against any noticeable sag even when employed to bear the load of an excessive number of towels. While not illustrated in the drawing, the rubber-jacketed line of my towel rack can be easily carried around an outside or into an inside corner of a room by the sim ple instrumentality of employing a third and complementing bracket which presents an eye through which the center part of the line is passed to efiectuate a bight. For an inside corner, this eye-bracket desirably presents a mounting flange the back face of which is of an obtuse angular shape when viewed from above, whereas.

the bracket for an outside corner has its mounting flange shaped to an acute angular form. The ability to cut the line to any length, and its adaptation to use around or into corners, gives to the towel rack functional accomplishments which cannot be obtained with the rigid-pole type of rack heretofore available.

In using the curtain hanging brackets of Figs. 5 and 6, thebracketsare fixedly secured either upon the wall or upon the head trim oi the window frame, as may be desired, and the line is then cut to length, threaded through the curtain or drape, and the ends peeled and knotted as abovedescribed. The assemblies of piston, eye-bolt, and disc are next applied to each bracket, and the knotted-ends of the. line are fed through the slots 22 to cause the bared necks 28 to become caught in the notches of the piston, whereupon the eye-bolts are taken up to draw the line tight. The ends of the curtainor drape are 'or may be pulled over the brackets to conceal the latter and it is to accommodate this end that I form these brackets with the illustrated open throats. The purpose in slotting the bracketswhen the same are to be applied for. hanging drapes or curtains is that these slots allow the line to be readily disengaged from the bracketswhen it becomes necessary to remove the curtains or drapes or cleaning, without,as would be otherwise the case, requiring removal of one of thebrackets from the supporting wall. 7

The described invention and the manner of its employment will, it is believed, be clear from the foregoing. Various departures from the embodiments which I have here elected to illustrate may obviously be resorted to Without departing from the spirit of the invention, and no limitations are to be implied by reason of having particularly described such illustrated embodiments. It is my intention that the hereto annexed claims be read with the broadest scope commensurate with the language used.

What Iclaim, is:

1. The combination, with a-flexible line for suspending towels, curtains and the like, of supporting brackets for the line arranged to be seecured in spaced relation upon a wall and each providing a :head formed with a longitudinal chamber, a piston received for endwise slidi movement within said chamber and providing means for attaching an end of the flexible line thereto, and means carried by the head and screwed into the piston for giving endwise movement to the piston.

2. The combination, with a flexible line for suspending towels, curtains and the like comprised of a length of rubber-jacketed wire, of supporting brackets for the line arranged to be secured in spaced relation upon a wall and each providing a head formed with a longitudinal chamber, a piston for each of said brackets received for endwise sliding movement within the 4 related chamber and providing means for attaching an end of the flexible line thereto, and a threaded bolt for each of said supporting brackets held against endwise movement in relation to the bracket and screwed into the piston for moving the piston longitudinally within the chamber by turning movements imparted to the bolt.

3. The combination, with a flexible line for suspending towels, curtains and the like and adapted to have its ends knotted, of supporting ber and provided with a re-entrant notch in the periphery arranged to receive the end of the knotted line therein with the knot bearing against the back face of the piston, and means carried by the respective head and screwed into the related piston for giving endwise movement to the piston.

4. The combination, with a flexible line for suspending towels, curtains and the like, and comprised of a length of rubber-jacketed wire, of supporting brackets for the line arranged to be secured in spaced relation upon a wall and each providing a hollow head describing, within the head, a cylindrical chamber open to the rear and having a shallow-counter-bore circumscribing said rear opening, a removable center-bored disc fitting said counter-bore, and a threaded bolt bearing by its head upon the disk and extending through the center-bore of the latter to engage the threads of the piston, said piston providing means for attaching an end of the flexible line thereto.

5. A bracket assembly for use in supporting the end of a flexible line and which comprises a body structure having means for attaching the bracket and providing a head describing a longitudinal chamber therein, a piston received for endwise sliding movement within the chamber and providing means for attaching an end of the line to the piston, and a threaded bolt acting in the bracket and screwed into the piston to give endwise movement to the piston by the act of turning the bolt.

6. A bracket assembly for use in supporting the end of a flexible line and which comprises a bracket body having means for attaching the bracket and providing a head describing a longitudinal chamber therein open to the rear and having a shallow counter-bore circumscribing said rear opening, a removable center-bored disk fitting said counter-bore, a piston received for endwise sliding movement in the chamber and formed with an internally threaded center-bore, said piston providing means for attaching an end of the line thereto, and a threaded bolt bearing by its head upon the exposed face of the disk and extending through the center-bore of the latter to engage the threads of the piston.

7. A bracket assembly adapted to be mounted upon a wall and intended for use in supporting the terminally-knotted end of a. flexible line, said bracket providing a head describing a longitudinal chamber therein, a piston received for endwise sliding, movement within the chamber and provided in its periphery with a re-entrant notch having a transverse dimension approximating the diameter of the line and arranged to receive the end of the knotted line therein with the terminal ALFRED LUNDE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Renfrow July 26, 1898 McGeorge May 14, 1901 Cloud Sept. 15, 1925 Quigley May 14, 1929 Begin et a1 Mar. 4, 1941 

